The House Jan. 6 committee releases its final report on the Capitol attack

Updated December 22, 2022 at 10:24 PM ET

Nearly two years after the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the Democratic-led House committee investigating the attack released its full report Thursday.

The report comes after the panel's final business hearing on Monday, where they recommended former President Donald Trump be prosecuted by the Department of Justice on four charges: obstruction of an official proceeding; conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to make a false statement; and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. by assisting, aiding or comforting those involved in an insurrection.

The committee also referred four Republican House members — Kevin McCarthy of California, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Andy Biggs of Arizona — to the House Ethics Committee for failure to comply with subpoenas.

A summary of the report was also released Monday, which includes the panel's key findings and evidence related to the criminal referrals.

What else is in the report?

The report includes additional evidence, along with detailed descriptions of the scheme pushed by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. It also includes citations from the more than 1,000 interviews the committee members conducted over the course of their 18-month investigation.

More documents are still expected.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who chairs the committee, told reporters that transcripts of non-sensitive interviews they conducted will be released before end of the year, when the panel officially sunsets. Some have already been released.

What happens now that the committee has finished its investigation?

Whether the Justice Department will take any action is unclear. Since Trump announced another run for the presidency, the DOJ appointed special counsel Jack Smith to lead the department's investigations into the former president.

It is likely that the committee's referrals of House members to the ethics committee will hit a wall when Republicans take control of the House in the new year.

The committee's legislative recommendations appear to have traction: a bill updating the Electoral Count Act, further clarifying that the vice president's role in certifying the election is entirely ceremonial, has bipartisan backing and has been attached to the omnibus spending bill moving through Congress.

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